The Canadian and the Beast
by freakanature06
Summary: A horrid prince is turned into a beast by a beautiful enchantress and must learn to love in order to regain his former glory. Based on Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Eventual Prussiaxfem!Canada
1. Prologue

_A/N:_ _Yeeeah, I'm sure this has been done before, but I freaking want to do it. I make no promises as to how long this story will continue, though. XD I'll try to do as much as I can!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or Beauty and the Beast. They belong to Himaruya and Disney respectively. Don't pretend like I've ever pretended to own them.**

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><p><span>Prologue<span>

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome prince. He had everything in the world he could want: wealth, fame, women. And he thought himself the most awesome thing to ever grace the world.

But nothing was ever enough for him. He waged war after war upon neighboring countries and he was cruel to all those around him, both friend and foe alike. Despite having everything, the prince did not have a single friend among his confidants.

However, being as awesome as he was, the prince saw no need for such foolish things as friends and he gladly turned away any attempt at friend-making with banishment or emotional torture. He was happy by himself, alone and completely amazing.

So it was that one day, an old beggar woman appeared at the prince's doorstep asking for shelter from the cold and rain. Never one to tend towards free hospitality, the prince demanded money from the woman to pay for what shelter she would be taking. When she could not provide any, he promptly slammed the door in her face.

But this beggar woman was actually a beautiful enchantress. She appeared to him suddenly and laid a curse upon him, turning him and his castle into monstrous versions of what they once were. To break this curse, she set a simple condition:

If he could learn to love and be loved in return by his twenty-first birthday, the curse would be lifted. However, if he could not, he would remain a beast forever.

Years passed and soon none dared to come to the castle for fear of what lie inside. And the prince was left alone in his world of misery, losing hope that he would ever be his awesome self again.

Because how could he love anyone who wasn't himself? No one even came close to his awesomeness! And who could ever learn to love someone so hideous, so foul, so cruel?

Who could love a beast?


	2. Madeleine

_A/N: Lol, what's that? Write this ridiculously long first chapter while at work today? Okay! -_-;; I had fun writing it though. XD;_ _Enjoy!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia or Beauty and the Beast. They belong to Himaruya and Disney respectively. Don't pretend like I've ever pretended to own them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 1 - Madeleine<span>

As the first rays of sunlight crept over the mountains in the distance, a cottage just outside of the small valley town was the first place to be struck with the light. In the doorway of the cottage, one eye framed by half of a set of glasses peeked out cautiously. After a moment, certain that there was no one around, the rest of a young woman's face followed, her golden blonde hair done up in pigtails and a beret resting haphazardly on her head. She fiddled with her glasses for a moment before opening the door completely and stepping out. As she closed the door quietly behind herself, she looked around once more and clutched a large book to her chest protectively. Then, she set out.

All through her life, as far back as she could remember, Madeleine had suffered from social phobia. She feared being around people she didn't know, and even more so being around large groups of people. That was part of why she and her Papa had moved to such a small village when she was young. That and her Papa was convinced that the only way to get any _good_ writing done was to do so in peace.

Unfortunately, even a short venture into the little town often left Madeleine rattled, so she usually didn't dare it. Today, however, she had finished reading a book she had borrowed from the bookstore and she had nothing else to read. As reading was pretty much all she ever did, Madeleine faced the conundrum of either doing nothing or risking the village in order to get a new book.

She was very proud of herself for choosing the latter option. It used to be that she never even would have _thought_ of doing something so ludicrous, so this must obviously mean that she was starting to get better.

Carefully, Madeleine began to pick her way through the weeds that made up the front lawn and headed down into the village. As she passed through, people who saw her would greet her warmly, with a friendly, "Bonjour." Madeleine shied away from every single one of them, mumbling her own quiet response before hurrying on. Most stared after her in bewilderment. They all knew her and they all knew it was a rare thing to see her out and about. Every single person in town was fascinated by her, both because of her tendency to disappear in the blink of an eye and because she was obviously quite adorable.

In this slow manner, Madeleine finally made her way into the bookstore, closing the door behind her and wincing as the bells overhead jingled at her arrival. She looked up just in time to see one of the two men who owned the store standing up slowly. He was a tall, intimidating man by the name of Berwald, and Madeleine was absolutely terrified of him.

She let out a small gasp and immediately crouched down on the floor, holding the book she had borrowed over her head as protection. She could feel the large footfalls coming towards her until, suddenly, the book was pulled out of her hands and the footsteps started again, this time retreating. She looked up hesitantly to see that Berwald had gone. Apparently he had only wanted to take the book back from her.

Shaking softly, Madeleine rose to her feet again, blushing heavily as she dusted herself off a little. She felt silly for being so afraid of Berwald. He was a nice enough man, he was just, well, huge! And he always looked so angry and stern.

The other man who owned the store, however, was nothing like his partner. He came out from behind some shelves presently and spotted the quivering girl, letting out a gentle sigh. "Did he scare you again?" he asked brightly, putting on an apologetic smile as he made his way towards Madeleine.

Immediately, Madeleine felt her tenseness evaporating, though only a little. Timo was someone that she had gotten very close to over their mutual love of books and she felt like she could be a little bit more open with him than with most people. It was nice. "A-ah, yes, s-sorry," she responded haltingly, looking a little ashamed of herself.

"Don't worry about it," Timo replied easily with a small laugh. "He does that to pretty much everyone."

Madeleine couldn't help but smile back. Timo was just such an easygoing and infectious person. "I… I guess."

For a moment, Timo looked as if he were about to pat Madeleine on the shoulder, but he quickly thought better of it and instead just laughed again, more awkwardly this time, and beckoned for her to follow him down the row of books. "I'm guessing you're here for a new book?" It was more of a statement than a question. Timo knew Madeleine very well and he knew that the only reason she visited was for reading material.

"Y-yes, please, if it's not too much trouble." She fidgeted with her sleeves as she spoke, one of her many nervous habits. She rather hated the fact that she used Timo just for his books, but there was really nothing else she could do. Papa didn't make enough money for her to afford every book that she would have wanted to buy, and she went through them so quickly that just a few at a time would never be enough.

"No trouble at all!" Timo stopped in front of a small selection of books. "Here's one you might not have read." Reaching out, he pulled a leather-bound book off of the shelf and held it out to her. "It's about an enchanted prince and the princess he rescues. Seems right up your alley."

Madeleine eagerly took the book from his hands and perused it quickly, flipping through the pages with some mounting excitement. "It sounds wonderful!" she said, a bit breathlessly.

Timo laughed and stooped a little to make eye contact with her, since she was focused downward. "Why don't you keep it then? As a present."

Startled, Madeleine looked up at him with a gasp. "I… T-Timo, I can't! That's… it's… I-I don't have the m-money to pay you!"

"It wouldn't be a present if you paid me." Smiling, he tapped the book softly. "This is one of my favorites and I want to share it with you. Please don't turn me down."

When he put it like that, Madeleine couldn't bring herself to tell him 'no'. Instead, she nodded, blushed, and held the book close to her chest, unable to form a coherent reply.

There were only a couple more minutes of idle chit-chatting, mostly from Timo, before Madeleine was out the door again and picking her way carefully through the streets. Already, she had started reading the book that Timo had gifted to her, eyes flashing up over the edge every so often to make sure she wasn't about to run into something.

Madeleine was never very good at multi-tasking though, and it wasn't very long before she was so engrossed in the book that she was paying absolutely no attention to where she was going. Timo had been right, the book was very much her type, with daring rescues and a princess who was trapped in a tower trying to get free.

The sudden impact of hitting something very solid caught Madeleine off-guard and she began to stumble backward before a pair of strong hands caught her shoulders and kept her on her feet. Looking up, she came face-to-face with the most gorgeous man in town. And he was smiling at her, his glasses flashing in the sunlight.

"Heeey, Maddie, keep an eye on where you're going! Don't wanna hurt yourself, do you?"

Madeleine could feel her face heating up as all the blood in her body rushed there suddenly. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to form words, and looking more and more like a fool every moment.

"A-A-A-Alfred!" she suddenly blurted, wheeling back slightly and accidentally breaking herself out of the man's grip. She stumbled back for a moment before landing soundly on her bottom, staring up at the man she had accidentally run into.

Laughing, Alfred reached down to offer her a hand up. "Hey, hey, careful. You're too pretty to be all bruised." Madeleine, who was about to take the offered hand, faltered when Alfred winked at her.

Quickly, she scrambled to her feet by herself, hugging her book tightly. "I… I'm s-s-sorry, I didn't see you there and I was in a hurry to get home so I'm really sorry, okay bye." Without further attempt at conversation, she turned away from him and fled in the direction of home.

Alfred had been Madeleine's childhood crush. She had hoped beyond hope that one day he would notice her. And he had _just touched her_. She felt giddy and faint all at the same time, and barely made it home in time to collapse in the first chair she came to, shaking.

He had touched her. And not only that, he had been concerned about her! It was like all of her fantasies had suddenly come true! Well, not all of them, really, but all of them that could realistically happen at least. For a moment, she was silent, breathing in and out deeply, trying to stop the tremors in her body. Then she burst out into quiet giggles, burying her face in her book excitedly.

"What has you so giddy, love?" Madeleine looked up quickly, going red again for a moment as she spotted her Papa, who was coming out of his room in his bedclothes, stretching.

Papa was an author. Or, really, he was an artist too. He made comics and had been trying to get into the business of publishing them widely for years and years, with little success. Madeleine loved his stories and his art and she was always the first person to read anything new that he had written.

"N-nothing, Papa, it was just something in town," she mumbled in reply. Her typical stutter of uncertainty was lost around her Papa. He always put her at ease. A moment later, she blinked and then gave him a stern look, setting her book aside. "Papa, did you _just_ get up? You have a fair today! You should have been gone hours ago!"

The fair was always an opportunity for Papa to get published. And that was what Madeleine wanted more than anything in the world. If he wasn't ready to go, if he was late, he would run a lower chance of getting published.

"Don't worry, my dear, I'll be on my way soon." He yawned and stretched again, but Madeleine was in no mood for him to be taking his time.

With her help, he was together and bustled out of the house in less than a half hour. "Now hurry, Papa! You don't want to run any later than you already are!"

"Yes, yes, alright." He laughed and waved to her as he hopped onto the horse he would be taking and set off.

Watching him go, Madeleine felt the pang that she felt every time he left. What if he never came back? She would have no one. But she pushed it aside, like she always did. Papa had made her a promise long ago that he would never, ever leave her alone, and she fully expected him to keep that promise forever.

André frowned at the map in his hands as he looked over the darkened road before him. A storm had set in not long after he had left home and the clouds were making it difficult to see in the already dense forest. He flipped the map over a couple of times and then sighed heavily.

"I think we're lost," he commented, mostly to his horse. There was nothing around for as far as the eye could see. Except there, in the distance, there seemed to be a signpost. Quickly, André tugged the horses reins towards the sign, squinting at it as they came closer. "Well, this makes no sense at all, does it?"

The sign seemed to have been mostly weathered away, but there was a simple, clear warning pointing in the direction that André was quite sure he needed to be headed. "Well, there's nothing for it but to try."

As he traveled, the road became darker still and raindrops began to pelt down, slowly at first, but gaining in intensity quickly. Soon, André was drenched to the bone. With no sign of the end of the road near, he began to wonder if he shouldn't just find a place to camp out for the night.

That was when he broached a hill and saw before him, quite suddenly, a great castle. "Funny, I didn't know there was a castle here." Surely there shouldn't have been, or else it would have been on all of the maps.

Curiosity piqued, and in desperate need of shelter, André led his horse to the castle and dismounted, tying the reins loosely around the large gate out front. The castle certainly looked like something out of a horror story, and André found himself inspired by it. Perhaps a quick look around would do no harm, and it might make an appearance in his next work.

Carefully, so as not to disturb the profound silence any more than necessary, André pushed open the front door and stepped inside. Somehow, there was light. A candle was burning on a nearby table. André drew in a deep breath and promptly sneezed.

"Damn! I've caught a cold." Wiping his nose with his sodden sleeve, André made his way to the candlestick to pick it up. He would need the light as he moved deeper into the castle. But the mere presence of the burning candle disturbed him. Perhaps this castle wasn't abandoned at all, as he had first thought.

"Hello?" he called out quietly.

Then, from directly next to him, a voice answered. "Bonjour, monsieur."

André jumped and turned around, but there was no one there. The voice spoke again, from exactly the same position he had heard it before. "You look very cold, mon ami, wouldn't you like me to help keep you warm? Hon hon hon." It laughed, obviously amused by itself, but André could still not find the source of the voice.

"Where are you, sir?" he asked bluntly, still looking around desperately.

"In your hand, monsieur. Can you not feel me?"

Looking to his hand, André suddenly found himself staring into a living, moving face on the candle he was holding. With a gasp, he dropped the candlestick and the light sputtered out.

"Now look what you've done!" It was another voice, this one with a crisp British accent. "You damn frog, light yourself back up already, I can't see the man to make sure he's not _stealing_ anything."

"I beg your pardon, but I don't plan to steal a thing," André replied hotly as the light suddenly flickered back into life. And now there was a timepiece as well, walking awkwardly towards the candlestick that was picking itself up and brushing itself off.

"Ah, Arthur, do not be so rude. He is our guest, oui? We should be kind to him."

"Not likely. If Gilbert finds out, he'll likely kill you. And it would serve you right, too."

"You shouldn't be calling him by name, mon ami. He'll be very angry with you. Besides, he _likes_ me."

"Oh, sod off, Francis! I'm not calling him 'master' when he's in a worse predicament than we are, like he still owns the damn place or something."

"Technically, I'm pretty sure he does."

"SHUT IT!"

"Non. Hon hon hon."

"Excuse me?" André broke into the exchange as loudly as he could managed just before sneezing again. "But would you mind explaining to me what you're talking about?"

Both objects looked up at him suddenly, seemingly startled that he was still there. But then the candlestick smiled and waved him on. "Of course, of course, but let's get a seat first, non? Perhaps by the fire?"

He led André into the next room over, despite the clock's insistence that they shouldn't be doing this, and sat André down by the fire. A teapot with a very Spanish accent came in and offered him tea in a little Italian cup that complained nonstop about how gross it was for some ugly guy to be drinking out of him. A little put off by the insults, André was unable to drink more than a little bit of tea before setting the ornery cup aside, where it was fawned over by the teapot.

"Now, what exactly is going on here?" he questioned again.

Before any of the confusingly animate objects could answer him, though, a sudden roar filled the room and the fire went out with a gust of wind.

"Who the fuck is this?" demanded a voice. It was deep and growling and André supposed it sounded very much how a bear's voice would sound, if bear's had voices.

The candlestick was quickly on the defense. "It's just a poor man who came in from the rain, master. It's nothing to worry about, oui?"

But the new voice did not seem appeased and as André looked around, lightning flashed and he saw a monstrous beast, but only for a split second before there was suddenly hair in his face and blood red eyes were staring at him through the darkness.

"What are you doing here?" it demanded and André felt his blood freeze.

"I was… lost," he replied, lamely. "I came in… from the rain."

"Lies! You shouldn't be here!" Suddenly, something gripped André and lifted him off of his feet. "Fine, you want to stay? You'll be staying for as long as I'd like to keep you, then. How's that?"

André tried to kick free, but he couldn't. The grip was too strong. He and the pleading objects were helpless to do anything as the beast dragged him to the dungeons and tossed him into a cell, locking it firmly behind him.

As he beat on the door and tried to call out for help, André was struck with the revelation that for the first time, he might not be able to keep his promise to Madeleine for the first time in his life.

With that thought, he broke down in the cell, sobbing softly to himself.

Outside, André's horse heard the roaring from inside and began to panic. He tugged over and over again at the bonds restraining him, and suddenly broke free, turning tail and galloping back towards safety.

Towards home.


End file.
